One of the biggest hurdles that documentation writers face in maintaining documentation is staying on top of everything as it changes. We need to know what’s going on in the organization to be aware of pending changes to the code, so we’re not blindsided by code changes that may break documentation links, and cause docs to be incorrect or outdated. Sometimes it can feel like we’re just trying to catch up with what everyone else has done, which can be exhausting and frustrating.

Ideally, engineers would update the documentation as they update code or add functionality, or work with you to update them as the coded feature is being worked on, but that doesn’t always happen. Additionally, the documentation team often has a better grasp of what is important to document for the end user, and is the team that bridges the knowledge gap between the engineers and the end users.

In this talk, we’ll go over strategies for keeping your documentation up to date when you have many engineers and fewer documentation writers.

We’ll cover:

• Keeping up with the pace of an agile team.
• How to be aware of changes before they happen.
• Being diplomatic when breaking changes are introduced.
• Technical solutions to help keep track of changes and problems in your docs.
• How to prioritize when you have to catch up to changes.
• Organizing your odds and ends.
• Writing excellent release notes.